The United Provinces and East Harchong

So here's a question for everyone to mull over; do you think that the United Provinces and East Harchong will eventually merge into a single nation or remain as two?

If they merge, what do you figure for a timescale. Further, do you suspect that they will only do so if and when all of central Harchong is rid of the battling warlords and their fiefs? If they remain separate, what do you think their long-term relationship with each other will be like?

In another thread I saw a suggestion that they would likely join into a confederacy of sorts but remain as separate nations. I tend to agree with this, especially considering that East Harchong seems to be a bit less quick to jump on the technology bandwagon than the Provinces and East Harchong also seems to not quite have the distrust of the Church as the United Provinces do. (The latter point will certainly ease in the Provinces as the reformed Church stays true to its ways, but it will no doubt take some time.) That may cause a bit of friction between the two. Granted we
A) saw less of East Harchong in general, and
B) what we did see showed that they in no way rejected the innovations and technologies coming out of Charis.

That said, I could see a mutually beneficial confederacy forming and possibly, in several decades I should think, that that may become a formal united nation.


P.S. Do we have an official name for what the East Harchong nation is called or is East Harchong actually the official name? I don't remember reading that bit, but I may have just overlooked it.

All I remember seeing is "East Harchong", but we're halfway through TFT before anyone can convince Rainbow Waters that it's time to declare independence already. He wouldn't have given the region a distinctive name while he was still trying to look loyal.

I can definitely see an alliance between East Harchong and the United Provinces, but I don't see a merger. I suspect it will take years to clean out the warlords between them. If they could have joined up shortly after the Rebellion, they might have merged into a single political entity. As it is, the UP and East Harchong will have years to establish themselves as independent countries, both on the international scene and in the minds of their populations. If they try merging two or three books from now, after those former serfs/common citizens have a chance to get used to the rights they now hold, meshing the political systems could result in those former serfs seeing a threat to their freedoms. If nothing else, the vote is granted under different terms in the two countries. And since they're both elective governments, an equal merger of the two via marriage alliance (as we saw with Chisholm and Old Charis) won't work.

I agree with Julia Minor. East Harchong has a strong timocratic influences in their view of a citizen's franchise. The United Provinces is much more comfortable with true universal suffrage. It'll be a while before each group of citizens will be comfortable straying from their core principles in the management of their government.

I can see a confederation, a VERY weak one, with each state sovereign in all things save mutual defense. When threatened by a hostile power, I can see a process for establishing a unified chain of command. Otherwise, free trade and open borders for their citizens.

Like I said, a weak confederacy or very strong mutual defense treaties.